Cattle

Tullamore Farm is still in the throws of calving but there is now light at the end of the tunnel.

As of Wednesday, 73 cows out of 88 were calved with 74 live calves on the ground. Four sets of twins have more than made up for three mortalities; one premature, one at birth and one for unknown reasons at less than a week old.

Newborn calves are getting to grass at one- to two-days of age with their mothers, which is significantly reducing the pressure on housing and the risk of disease. No matter how well hygiene is monitored, calves born during the latter end of a calving season are more at risk of infection so prompt turn-out is paramount for these calves.

Elsewhere, 30 spring 2018-born heifers have been picked out for breeding. These will receive AI and sold as in-calf replacement heifers at the back end of the year.

In terms of replacements for the farm, eight Limousin cross heifers out of the dairy herd have been purchased.

Sheep

Lambing is progressing just as well as the calving. One hundred and fifty ewes are now lambed out of 185.

The flock delivered excellent scanning rate of 2.07 back in January and so far this this is translating into a very good crop of lambs thanks to very few health problems or lambing issues to report to date.

Despite turnout being suspended for Tuesday and Wednesday due to the bad weather forecast, by-and-large newborn lambs have been getting to grass from one day of age.

While turnout was delayed, lambs got one night of bonding in an individual pen before being moved into group sheds.

One ewe died this week from a suspected case of grass tetany.

Grass

This week’s average farm cover is 1,000kgDM/ha which is quite high for this time of year.

However, with silage ground now closed and more cattle and sheep going to grass on a daily basis, it should not run too far ahead.

As well as that, the average growth rate this week is only 16kgDM/ha/day, mainly as a result of frost at night and low day time temperatures, so heavier grass covers are needed for now. When growth does pick up significantly, there may be an opportunity to take out surplus grass.

Thirty acres of silage are closed now. They received slurry earlier in the spring and got two bags per acre of Cut Sward at closing.

All of the grazing ground received half a bag per acre of urea earlier in the year and we have been spreading watery slurry on paddock post-grazing.

Twitter

For the week commencing 24 March, Tullamore Farm manager Shaun Diver curated the @Irelandsfarmers twitter account. The account, which features a different Irish farm each week, draws in a worldwide audience and Shaun used the opportunity to document the day-to-day running of a suckler and sheep farm in Ireland. Below are just some of the highlights.